I am pretty sure it was jr who recommended AdBlock to me with regard to some issues I had concerning pop-under and hover ads on websites. I finally got around to downloading the Firefox version of the app, and it works very well at minimizing unwanted ads and CPU-draining, slow-loading Flash ads.

In particular the ESPN site no longer hangs up while waiting for clunky Flash ads to load.

For the people with too much time on their hands (and a proclivity to keep cat-oriented memes alive) there is also CatBlock, which converts all ads into LOLcat images.

I've seen Ghostery identify over 20 trackers or "things" on the Blade home page and over 30 on an article page.

On many media sites, Ghostery detects over 40 of these trackers, badges, whatever.

For kicks, I recommend disabling JavaScript or block all JavaScript and reload the same article page and then note the dramatic difference in page load time.

Client-side JavaScript certainly has its place for user interfaces and user experiences, but in my opinion, some redesigned media sites have gone way to far with trying to make their desktop/laptop web sites function similar to a native app on a mobile device.

But the crap that Ghostery detects is usually a lot of crap.

We think that we need new computers with faster processors or we need faster internet connections, but what helps speed up web surfing is site owners not abusing the web by forcing users to download a ton of gobblygook.

Maybe that's a selling point for media sites. I'll make micro payments to get the simplified, stripped-down, fast-loading, easy-to-read-on-all-devices version of the website.

I installed adblock and disconnect to my browser (Safari V 7.0.5) on my mac and one of them is disabling comments on the Blade site and it seems any site that uses Facebook for commenting. I have tried different combinations of turning the apps off and on but no luck in getting them back. Any ideas? I miss not seeing Neal Levine and Adam Smith comments.